>I need a dialer function or class that I can use to dial a number, send some data to the receiving computer and retreive lines of text from that computer. I feel sure that VFP 5.0 must have suce a class, but I cannot find it.
>

You can cosntruct such from the MSCOMM32 ActiveX control, which provides low-level access to serial ports. There are samples here on UT in the Files Section and FAQ that demonstrate the simple use of the ActiveX control.